Former Crips boss Duane “Keffe D” Davis jailed for life for orchestrating the murder of Tupac Shakur 30 years ago

"He was gentle and kind to women and children," Tupac's sister told the court in Las Vegas during sentencing

WhatsAppEmailLink CopiedLinkCheckCircle Duane Davis, center, arrives for a sentencing hearing after his murder conviction in the death of rapper Tupac Shakur on Tuesday. Picture: Associated Press/Alamy By Danielle de Wolfe

Former Crips boss Duane "Keffe D" Davis has been sentenced to 40 years to life behind bars for orchestrating the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur more than 30 years ago.

Davis, 63, was convicted by a jury last month on one count of murder with a deadly weapon, with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the killing, after the rapper was fatally shot in 1996.

Standing before a judge on Tuesday, Davis was given an aggregate sentence of 40 years to life for the rapper's murder – 20 years to life for first-degree murder, and a consecutive sentence of 20 years to life for use of a deadly weapon.

Shakur, described as an amazing "poet" and "warrior" by his family, died a week after being hit in the drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 13th, 1996.

Standing in the dock wearing handcuffs and a black jumpsuit, Davis, the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang, watched Tupac's sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, as she gave her victim statement in court.

"I do believe that when you take a life like that, you deserve every minute, every minute of the maximum amount of punishment, to sit down and contemplate what you've done to this world," Shakur's sister told the court ahead of the judge's sentencing.

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"You don't get to take a man from his family. You don't get to take his very life, his whole future from him and just walk away from it. Especially when that man is Tupac Shakur," the judge told the court as she handed down the sentence.

"The world never forgot about him in his death, and neither did Las Vegas. It took us 30 years. But at this time, you are going to face justice for what you did."

The court heard how "Tupac stood up for those weaker and smaller than him", with his sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, speaking of her mental health struggles, including suicidal ideation, in the wake of her brother's death.

Describing the difficulty of hearing how her brother was "hunted" by the gang, Sekyiwa said her brother was "so much more than street violence".

"He was gentle and kind to women and children," she told the court in Las Vegas. "He was my shining star, my shining Prince."

I'm now 51 and I've spent 30 years without my protection… I believe that all life matters, for sure."

"He died two days after he turned 25… where would we be if Martin Luther King died at 25? If Malcolm X died at 25?"

"He was cocky; he did have a big head. He did think he was black Jesus… he wanted to have a bobblehead; he wanted to be known in Africa. This was his plan."

She added: "Our whole generation lost something huge."

Some of Shakur's relatives cried and held hands in the courtroom in Clark County District Court, Las Vegas, as the jail term was handed out.

The then 25-year-old was riding in a black BMW driven by Death Row Records boss Marion "Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up alongside them, and gunfire erupted.

Jurors heard that the defendant orchestrated the shooting after his nephew Orlando Anderson was involved in an altercation with Shakur in a Las Vegas casino, and said that he was the "on-ground, on-site commander" who "ordered the death".

Prosecutors claimed that while he did not fire the gun that killed Shakur, Davis ordered the shooting and supplied the gun that Anderson used to open fire.

Davis was arrested near his home in Las Vegas in September 2023.

Prosecutor Binu Palal told the court to take Davis at his word and find him guilty, following years of him telling people "that he is responsible for Tupac Shakur's murder" through documentaries, his memoir, podcasts and a police interview.

Mr Palal said: "He's the shot caller, in every instance in every iteration he's the leader of the South Side Crips.

"When you have the shot caller sitting shotgun when shots are fired, there's no doubt he's responsible."

His defence team repeatedly claimed that the comments were merely "fiction" and "bravado" and that there wasn't sufficient proof.